“You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.” – L Ron Hubbard.

In 1953, science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard set out on a mission – create a new religion based on his book Dianetics.

Hubbard truly believed in the psychological benefits of the practices suggested in the book. So he released it to the psychological community – expecting to be hailed as a genius for discovering these new ways of understanding and improving the human mind.

At 24 years of age, Mark Cuban was far from what many would call a success.

“I was living in a 3-bedroom apartment in Dallas. I didn’t have my own bedroom. I slept on the couch or floor depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead, I had a pile that everyone knew was mine. My car had the usual hole in the floorboard, a ’77 FIAT X19 that burned a quart of oil that I couldn’t afford every week.”

Over the last 6 years, I have deliberately put myself in "no retreat" situations.

I have moved to a new city, I have set a hard deadline, or signed up to do something out of my comfort zone. Whenever I'm becoming a big fish in a small pond with my personal development, I jump into a bigger pond – even if I'm not ready.

I've done this so often, in fact, that I developed a process that helps me achieve the "unrealistic" goals necessary to make it in the "bigger pond."

Right now, I have yet another unrealistic goal. So here is how I planned to achieve it:

I was about to do my first pitch to a room of investors in my entrepreneurial career. As the clock ticked down to my turn to speak, I no longer feared being on stage…**I feared having a panic attack before I got there.**

In 1846, the head doctor of Vienna General Hospital had a crisis on his hands—1 in 6 women were dying of childbed fever. [1]

The risk of death was so bad, in fact, that women were choosing to take the risk of giving birth at home rather than going to his hospital. Not since the middle-ages had women willfully chosen to give birth at home–especially in a large city like Vienna.

The participants, all non-exercisers with the goal of adding workouts to their weekly routine, were asked to write down how many hours they planned to spend in the gym over the next 2 weeks.

So each participant entered in the amount of time they plannedto spend in the gym, then they would record how much time they actually spent in the gym. After careful calculation, the participants planned to spend about twenty hours working out over the next two weeks.

In April 1994, Bill Gates completely cut himself off from his work, his friends, and even his family for an entire week.

This was part of an annual ritual that he called his “Think Week” where he takes the time to step back from everything and look at it from a high-level. He found that this separation gave him clarity and the ability to think outside the box.

This particular Think Week ensured Microsoft’s dominance for the next decade. [1]

He was struggling with the question of whether the Internet was a fad or here to stay. Until that point, Microsoft was completely focused on the personal computer and ignored many other opportunities like personal digital assistants.

“All men have the will to win. But it’s the man who has the will to prepare who’s going to win.” – Bob Knight

In 1975, the legendary college basketball coach, Bob Knight, led his Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated season and a national championship victory – something that hasn’t been done again in over 40 years now.

Upon his retirement from the game, he wrote a book where he told the world his approach to psychology in the game of basketball – The Power of Negative Thinking.

Over the last several years Katy Perry’s music has filled concert venues, MP3 players and radio stations across the world. It seems like just as she releases one hit, another one is just around the corner.

Imagine you have just been hired as CEO of a Fortune 500 company. You’re excited about all of the changes and improvements you can make for the company, and you’re eager to get started. But, there’s a catch - you have no information.

Accounting, finance, sales, marketing, you have absolutely no numbers on any of them from the time before you took over, or during your tenure as CEO. So how would you make the best decisions for the company? If you have no quantifiable data, how can you see if any of your new ideas are working?

All of your goals would simply be measured by whether you “felt” like you were making progress with the company. This is obviously a horrible way to run an organization, so why do we apply that to our lives?

I don’t believe in quick fixes. I believe in small, almost un-noticeable, wins compounded on a daily basis that eventually lead to spectacular results. However, when I began my journey into the world of Willpower Science, I came across one age-old concept that promised to enhance my willpower and discipline overnight – meditation.

It’s Tuesday at 7am. Susan, an account manager for a brokerage firm, takes a look at her calendar for the day. She sees that huge presentation for one of her firm’s top clients at 10. She’s been dreading this presentation for some time, as the client is becoming impatient with a lack of results, and there’s rumors that they’re exploring other firms to invest with. This presentation is crucial, and could be the difference between her getting a promotion, or getting a box to pack her things.

It was February 2013. The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers were about to take the field of the Super Dome to play for the greatest prize in the game of football –The Lombardi Trophy. They weren’t the only ones taking in the experience, though. Down in the tunnel, on the field, and in the stands, Russell Wilson – quarterback of the playoff-eliminated Seattle Seahawks – was also taking it all in.